My guess is that the fire will be under control only when a weather event ends it, probably in October. In the mean time the best we can do will be to keep people affected by it safe, even if they lose their homes and avoid any accidents to the fire crews. Thank goodness we have some good new technology and communications.

Here I am north of the Clark Fork River from the fire so a ground fire would not be too much of a threat. The potential danger is from burning embers being carried over by the wind. We are receiving burned ash every day, but so far no spot fires. If it starts new fires on this side of the river though, it will be a brand new ballgame.

They are doing everything possible. I was very happy to see the big chopper working the fire this morning. It will at least slow the advance of the fire to the east. I see that it is now judged to be over 2200 acres.

Those fires can spread so quickly and keep on burning for such a long time. The BC fires are still burning. Not threatening communities anymore but burning just the same. The air quality is still poor in many communities, especially those closest to the fires. I bet your air is pretty smoky – unless the wind is blowing it all away from you.

The smoke is going so high up over the fire that it passes well overhead, dropping ash (fortunately so far cold ash). An are to the south of the river has now been evacuated. I am expecting some guests tonight from another fire about 40 miles west of here. They have to get out in a hurry. I’m on standby for Rural Fire so it will be good if someone else will be here.

This morning it looked like (from what I could see through the smoke) that the fire didn’t hit the valley floor yet there, but there’s a corner that I couldn’t see, so it’s still a good thing that they’re out of there.

Last night, I watched four of this sort of helicopter pass by, heading northwest. I have no idea which agency they belonged to, but I’m sure they were headed to Ellington Field. There have been a lot of people here from all across the country — even from the NYFD — but I heard this morning that some of the air equipment is being released. Perhaps you’ll be getting some reinforcements now that the SAR efforts have almost completely transformed into recovery.

They also might be needing them in that LA fire. Resources are very thin all over. The big fire up by Seeley Lake is over 100,000 acres this morning which is very large for a forest fire: prairie fires are usually larger.